Eloise Gomez Reyes endorsement shows divided Democrats

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, and immediately to his right Eloise Gomez Reyes, at a rally in downtown San Bernardino on Friday in support of her bid for the 31st Congressional District seat.
Ryan Carter — Staff

SAN BERNARDINO >> The cheers for attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, on Friday were meant to celebrate the lift her campaign for the 31st Congressional District expected from the endorsement of the fourth-ranking Democrat in Congress.

“Eloise didn’t start off with all the big-name political support. Eloise didn’t start off schmoozing with all the Washington, D.C., political insiders,” said Becerra, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and leader of California’s congressional delegation. “Eloise has proven time and time again that she has been a community leader, a leader in the legal profession, a leader for women’s rights, a leader for communities that want to advance and a leader that never forgot where she came from.”

Becerra’s suggestion — that Reyes, although she was endorsed early by the influential EMILY’s List for females supportive of abortion rights, was gaining ground against a Democrat with an early advantage — also highlights the complicated picture for Democrats hoping to gain the seat.

Becerra’s decision breaks with the endorsement of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other high-ranking party members, who endorsed Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar and deepens the divide among the four Democrats seeking the seat that Rep. Gary Miller, R- Rancho Cucamonga, said he would retire from this year.

And so Republicans also saw reason to cheer.

As in 2012, they hope, Democrats might split their support and lose to Republicans despite the GOP’s having fewer registered voters.

“History repeats itself all the time, and it’s looking like that’s what we’ll see in 2014,” said John Thomas, campaign strategist for Republican candidate Paul Chabot, who announced last week that he would run for Miller’s seat. “The risk the candidates run is it becomes a Democratic beauty pageant — who is the bigger Democrat, who panders more to the base — and they do the same thing they did in the past.”

“Inland Empire residents don’t want another tea party loyalist who will stack the deck against the middle class,” Gayle said in an email. “They want a thoughtful, problem-solving Democrat like Pete Aguilar who will put middle class families first and help our economy work for everyone, not just a select few.“

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John Valdivia — a San Bernardino councilman who along with Miller’s senior policy director Lesli Gooch were also contending for the seat on the Republican side — said the focus on endorsements was beside the point.

“That doesn’t address the issue families are dealing with: that’s jobs,” Valdivia said. “The bottom line is we’ve got to get back to the issues at hand for the Inland Empire. That’s jobs, that’s addressing the housing situation.”

Aguilar himself was enthusiastic as he pointed to the support he’s lined up — “a large coalition, including Sen. (Dianne) Feinstein (D-California), 14 California members of Congress, but more importantly those folks who know our community, Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown and Rialto Mayor Deborah Robertson, many others who represent the region.”

Like his opponents from both parties, Aguilar spoke of the challenges facing the region and the country and why he thought he was best to solve them, and he said many of his supporters were energized.

As they were in 2012, when he finished third in the primary behind Republicans Miller and then-State Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga.

“I think it’s a very different set of circumstances,” Aguilar said. “Last year the campaign was 19 weeks, basically, and this time it’s 19 months. There are huge differences in the coalition we’ve built, the doors we’ve knocked on and conversations we’re having.”

The other Democratic candidates, school board member Danny Tillman and former Rep. Joe Baca, have said they expect a Democrat to win, hopefully themselves.

Reyes — flanked by dozens of supporters in front of San Bernardino City Hall, including former San Bernardino Mayor Judith Valles — said she saw people demanding change.

“Your presence reminds me that you are ready for something new in the 31st Congressional District,” she said. “Like me, you love this community, and you know we can and we will see a strong change for a better and brighter future. We deserve it, you all deserve it.”